By Mary Welch
Staff Writer
Genentech Inc.s. stock jumped 10 percent Friday as the South San Francisco-based company said it had preliminary positive results from Phase III asthma efficacy trials for it anti-IgE (rhuMAb-E25) product.
We had told analysts that before the end of the year we would give some basic information about the asthma trial, said Michelle Truelson, Genentechs manager of corporate relations. We will present the data in March for peer review but we wanted people to know that it is positive. I think the stock market loved it. Yesterday we announced we were entering Phase III with our vascular endothelial growth factor product, so there may be a bit of residual excitement over that as well.
Genentechs stock (NYSE:DNA) closed Friday at $125.06, up $11.375.
Genentech, along with its partners Novartis Pharma AG, of Basel, Switzerland, and Tanox Inc., of Houston, will release a complete analysis of the asthma data by first quarter 2000, and hope to present results at the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology in San Diego in March.
Were looking to file a BLA [biologics license application] by mid-2000, she said.
Genentech conducted Phase III trials for its anti-IgE for allergic asthma and seasonal allergic rhinitis. In May the company released data from a separate trial in Scandinavia that showed treatment with anti-IgE, a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody to immunoglobulin E, decreased the severity of nasal and ocular allergy symptoms compared to placebo, and reduced the number of rescue allergy medication tablets by more than 50 percent.
IgE is an antibody that triggers the release of inflammatory mediators, such as histamine, prostaglandin and leukotrienes, which causes the symptoms associated with allergic reactions. The release of these inflammatory substances plays a major role in allergic disease, such as allergic asthma and seasonal allergic rhinitis.
Anti-IgE works by binding to circulating IgE in the blood. The treatment is intended to intervene early in the allergic process by targeting the source of allergy inflammation. Anti-IgE prevents IgE from binding to mast cells, thereby blocking the consequent release of inflammatory mediators.
We released the data in May that showed that the monoclonal antibody worked for seasonal allergic rhinitis, Truelson said. Now were saying it also worked in allergic asthma.